The Boston Red Sox are busy celebrating another World Series championship today after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

However, the Red Sox found themselves in the middle of a minor scandal last season. When the Red Sox were hosting their bitter rivals, the New York Yankees, Boston was accused of stealing the Yankees signs. Now, sign-stealing is something that has been in baseball since its conception. However, the Red Sox were accused of having an official watching the game on television and then sending a message down to a coach in the dugout via an Apple Watch to aid in stealing signs and signals.

The Red Sox were subsequently fined by MLB’s Commissioner’s Office.

A month later in October, a Diamondbacks coach was being investigated to figure out why he was wearing an Apple Watch in the dugout.

When Apple Watches first debuted, there was skepticism as to how they would be accepted not only by consumers, but they the watch industry as a whole. Apple is here to stay in the watch game, according to the earnings numbers released from 2017’s fourth quarter. Apple outsold the entire Swiss watch industry, shipping eight million units.

How they did it

When there is a runner on second base the catcher uses a series of numbers to disguise the real sign.

During the game, the Red Sox studied video replay from the center-field cameras to examine the series of signs the Yankees catcher used when there was a runner on second base. By matching up the catcher’s signals with the type of pitches thrown, they managed to figure out how to decode the signs.

Those in the video room then sent that decoding information to the dugout to the Apple Watch of a member of the training staff. He then relayed that information to players in the dugout.

The decoded information was relayed to the runner on second base by hand signals

The runner from second base then sent the info to the batter. Knowing what pitch is coming is a huge advantage for any major league batter.

Mark Morgan

Jorge Marcial Lopez Fernandez

Ted

Speaking of technology, the video feeds can be altered (colored lines on the football fields, changes made to the advertisements on the stadium walls). So I am sure that the networks have the ability to blur out the catcher’s signals to avoid viewers from being able to see them.

Randy

The decay of our moral society took a big leap forward in the 60’s and 70’s. There’s a fairly simple reason for it, but it does little good to discuss it. We asked government for it and got it. Almost everything we see/hear is orcastrated for a particular ideology.

Michael Crestohl

Mike

I love mechanical watches but ………
Apple Watch 4 is simply amazing. I now leave my phone at home .
It’s louder, faster & smarter than older models. And accuracy of time spot on. I even know temp,wind direction & speed at a glance
It’s just a incredible instrument .

Allen

OK, so Apple gets a lot of publicity, but there are plenty of hands-free cell phones
that are pretty inconspicuous that could have been used, and they have some
phone connection to from the dugout to their video room to decide whether to
challenge a call. The real story is “hacking” into the TV centerfield cameras to get
the supposedly private data. Watches are not guilty.